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Bag of Bones
by Stephen King
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Scribner (1998-09-22)
ISBN: 0684853507
EAN: 9780684853505
UPC: 000000025454
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Hardcover: 544 pages
Edition: 1st
Release Date: 1998-09-22
SKU: 03281
Condition: Collectible: Very Go
Comments: First edition with full number line. Hardback with dust jacket in great condition.
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com
Bag of Bones is partly inspired by Daphne du Maurier's classic Rebecca, but there's more than homage in this novel of horror and romance. Like du Maurier's Manderley, King's scary old place (on the shore of Maine's remote Dark Score Lake) is haunted by the late lady of the manor. There are many gory ghosts afoot, though: men, women, and wailing kids. The hero, a thriller novelist, stirs up hell's plenty of angry shades while investigating his wife's death. It turns out she either had a dark secret herself or was onto some dread scandal lurking in Dark Score Lake. As in King's previous book, Wizard and Glass, the fabric of reality is thin, and nosy narrators are in peril of plunging right out of this world and into a rather hostile otherworld. Bag of Bones is a writer-haunted book, too. The spirits of Herman Melville and Ray Bradbury are deeply felt, and so are the tale's two romances (the hero muses on his marriage and falls for a young single mom with a marvelous, psychic daughter). There is also good-humored satire of the real bestseller book world--the hero complains that "the publicity process is like going to a sushi bar where you're the sushi." In its deep concerns with love, sprawling families, the writer's life, endangered children, and good old-fashioned storytelling, the book resembles a John Irving novel. It is also absolutely classic Stephen King, packed with nifty turns of phrase, irreverent wit, and lurid ghouls who grab you from beneath the bed while you cower under the covers. --Tim Appelo
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Amazon.com Audio Review
No longer content to be the prolific provider of text, King grabs the audio reigns to recount this haunted tale of grief, young love, and otherworldly visits. When 40-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan returns to his lakeside cabin to process his wife's death, he finds the place a beacon for nightmares and ghoulish visits. But there's hope in Kingsville, as this struggling writer falls in love with a young widow named Mattie and her 3-year-old psychic daughter, Kyra. If you've never heard King speak, be warned: 19-plus hours of his western Maine, nasal-drenched tones may be more than some listeners can bear. But there's a certain warmth and believability to King's voice--after all, it's his book and he is a middle-aged bestselling novelist--that jive well with Noonan's character. And since King rarely reads his own work, perhaps his doing so indicates that he's especially pleased with Bag of Bones; most listeners should be as well. (Running time: 19.5 hours, 14 cassettes) --Rob McDonald
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Book Description
Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel, Bag of Bones, is a story of grief and a lost love's enduring bonds, of a new love haunted by the secrets of the past, of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire. Set in the Maine territory King has made mythic, Bag of Bones recounts the plight of forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, who is unable to stop grieving even four years after the sudden death of his wife, Jo, and who can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his word processor. Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike finally returns to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home. He finds his beloved Yankee town familiar on its surface, but much changed underneath -- held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, who twists the very fabric of the community to his purpose: to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike is drawn into their struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here -- and what do they want of Mike Noonan? As vivid and enthralling as King's most enduring works, Bag of Bones resonates with what Amy Tan calls "the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination." It's no secret that King is our most mesmerizing storyteller. In Bag of Bones -- described by Gloria Naylor as "a love story about the dark places within us all" -- he proves to be one of our most moving.
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Download Description
Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel, "Bag of Bones, " is a story of grief and a lost love's enduring bonds, of a new love haunted by the secrets of the past, of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire. Set in the Maine territory King has made mythic, "Bag of Bones" recounts the plight of 40-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, who is unable to stop grieving even four years after the sudden death of his wife, Jo, and who can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his word processor. Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike finally returns to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home. He finds his beloved Yankee town familiar on its surface, but much changed underneath -- held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, who twists the very fabric of the community to his purpose: to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike is drawn into their struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here -- and what do they want of Mike Noonan?
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Customer Reviews
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Look Homeward, Angel
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-08-24
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Through quintessential characters who practice unbridled evil, author Stephen King combines his wry sense of humor with steely commentary on pop culture, authors and politics and a supernatural underworld of murder, suicide and death for a macabre classic.
An author devoid of novel ideas, along with a young mother and her child, wear scarlet letters from a town's past where layers of lies have hidden a hideous crime. And in a vicious game of payback played for nearly a century, it is the children who are the pawns on this cruel landscape of nightmares.
The twists and turns in this page-turner of 700-plus pages ultimately lead to one of the finest novels in King's distinguished career.
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Scared the crap out of me....
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-30
This is the second of two King novels I've ever read - the first being "The Stand", which I still consider one of the best, most haunting books I've ever read. Truly, it affected me for weeks after I'd finished it.
This book grabbed from the very first page, and kept my attention to the very last. It also scared the living pi** out of me, but then again, I'm a big wuss when it comes to anything dealing with the supernatural.
Overall, this is a big, excellent read. Don't miss it.
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King Has Never Been Better
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-07
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
A serious contender to The Stand as King's best work. Moreover, hearing the author read the story, with the emphasis and such where he intended for it to be, was a real treat. You will not be disappointed with this purchase.
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A More Mature - and still scary - King!!!
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-05-01
Bag of Bones is an extremely well-plotted and engaging read, more 'literary' than many of his other, earlier works and still one of the most accessible.
It's both scary and melancholy and allows Stephen King to show off in one area where most people don't give him enough credit: characters. The characters are round and 'real' and you find yourself rooting for them through the course of the book. Mike Noonan - the main character - in particular is Stephen King's romanticized version of himself.
The scares in the book are not contrived and work on a fundamental level, more so than the simple boos you would expect in a Gothic sort of novel, which is more or less what Bag of Bones is. The pain and torment are real, which, I guess, makes the supernatural element more believable. Bag of Bones doesn't push the horror, and once you get lost in the story, you won't even notice that fifty pages have gone by without something supernatural happening.
Bag of Bones is terribly difficult to put down once you pick it up. It's a longer read, but not close to the level some of King's other work. Highly recommended for those who love his work and for those who want to start reading his stuff.
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Great, scary read
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-03-27
This book kept me up late reading! The story moves you right along and draws you in! Definitely a worthwhile, fun read. I enjoyed this book tremendously.
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